Note: While the below text represents a brief review of this specific Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear entry, a greater retrospective on the entire series, complete with images and footnotes, can be found here on my site, dendrobibliography.

Spore. The title and cover aren't quite as inviting in this novel. Spore surprised me by keeping up the quality and style of the previous two novellas (the Brain Spiders and the Swarm). Without the convoluted Project Starscream plot of the first six entries, author John Whitman seems to be pulling out stronger stories and stronger characterization (and spookier scares!).

Spore is the name of an Itharian -- the long, flat-necked species of the cover, nicknamed 'hammerheads' -- history lesson. Long ago, the Itharians created an immortal monster much like the critter of the Thing or the X-Files' "Ice" episode: An intelligent beast of nothing but tendrils that works its way through populations, infecting and infesting everything. Anything these tendrils touch join the hive-mind known as Spore.

Spore's been released from its tomb in the vacuum of space by witless miners, and nothing's safe. Friends and family become infected with this all-seeing single voice. Spore's cameo is, like Thrawn in the Swarm, another EU character not from the films: The blind sith Jerec from the Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight PC game makes an appearance here, seeking to use the Spore creature as a means of overthrowing the Emperor and becoming a new sith lord.

Spore's another creepy, enthralling entry in this series, and shows, I think, that John Whitman had been improving his narrative skills since the first novella. As this series continues, the stand-alone adventures are showing less and less plotholes, and finer attention to the source material, horror conventions, and the classic quest structure. It's a shame this series is out of print.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#8 The Swarm | #10 The Doomsday Ship ( )